Christmas Sunday

Here's the final look for the kids' Christmas outfits. I realize now, this should have been a family picture moment, but oh well.

Projects Update

Several months ago, while perusing the dollar rack at Once Upon a Child (a used children's store in our area) I came across a cute little forrest green velvet dress that would be Heidi's size at Christmas time. To my surprise, when I went to pay for it, and a few other items, it was ALSO on sale for 1/2 price. That made it 50 cents!! The only catch was that it was sleeveless. Now really, Heidi HAS worn a couple of sleeveless dresses in the past. But I told myself that when she got older I would put a stop to that all together. And yes, I know she's only 2 years old. I decided after purchasing this 50 cent-dress that we could afford to make it more modest. That meant she had to have a cute little jacket to go with it. Thus a project begins.

So fast forward to my birthday when I was itching for a project to get started on, and remembered that I Vowed to make this jacket, and Hadn't even thought about it yet. I search though what material I've used already, and found just enough black fabric to cut out the lining. (Which is great 'cause that fabric wasn't gonna cut it as a jacket for a velvet dress.) So, with the help of my MIL and the cart pushing/kid watching skills of my FIL, I picked out some more suitable fabric. I got to work on it a couple of days later and had it pretty much done in  days. (You'll have to wait for pictures of the final set.) While I was working on this, Daniel asked if I would make him something too. He said he wanted a vest. That got me thinking again.

While shopping elsewhere a week or so later, I came a cross some very affordable ties, and thought of my best friend, who knows how to turn one into a little boy's tie so her boy and her husband can match. I had to buy them and give it a show. Then, while talking to her about it, she reminded me of a tutorial here wherein a lady made her boy super easy suspenders. I took another look at that fancy black fabric. There was enough left over for suspenders too. And because LanaMarie is such an amazing friend, she wrote this tutorial on her blog just so I could give it a try.

Okay , so sorry for all of that background info, on to the sewing. The tie: I cut my tie too short to able to sew the Velcro on. In fact, the ends just barely met each other. Never mind over lapping like they should. But I did have several hook and eye sets, so I decided to give that a try. It worked well, luckily. Also I decided not to fold and sew it in half, since my boy is a little bigger that hers, and the thickness fir in his collar just fine.

Then, with the advice of my husband, I cut the other end at the appropriate length and ironed and also sewed the ends to a point.

The fusing I bought before wasn't exactly what she uses, but I already had it, and it did okay. I didn't completely trust it on it's own, though. All in all it turned out pretty good I have to say, and I was really glad to have the tutorial to check and recheck the process.

After finishing the tie, I started on the suspenders. The girl with the tutorial used two of those elastic shirts or dress tighteners, which worked perfectly. Because I put this off 'till the Saturday before, all I could find were these. Originally intended to keep sheet corners on mattresses or covers on ironing boards.

They are pretty much the same thing, but with longer,thinner elastic, and clips that attached differently. I didn't want any if the white elastic to show for black suspenders however. So I devised a plan to hide it entirely. Here's how they ended up looking. Pretty good for my first try. 

Our 4-year-old.

Daniel just had his 4th birthday this past Thursday. We went to the museum, and took my niece, Kayla with us. We brought our lunch (sandwiches), and ate there when we were through playing. (For some unknown reason It didn't occur to me to bring the camera a for this part of the festivities.) DUH! Kayla decided she wanted to go back home after the museum. Daniel got to stay up from nap and watch his pick from the Redbox; "Super Hero Squad" (an animated super hero show on DVD.) He still says it was "AWESOME!" Later that evening, after Daryl got home from work, I made mini pizzas for dinner, and we all had cupcakes and ice cream.

We knew we wouldn't be able to plan much with Daddy for that evening. His final class for the semester fell on Daniel's birthday. So... we made awesome plans to go to the train park in Scottsdale that Saturday. This would be our first time going there, and Daniel was EXCITED. He had been saying "And thanks that we can go to the train park." in his prayers every night for 3 or 4 days leading up to the trip.

Fast forward to two days later...

Daniel was allowed to choose a friend to go with us  And of course, he chose his "best friend", and cousin, Cameron. When we got there, the first thing we did was buy our tickets to ride the train. Then, on our way

there, we took these fun pictures.

Here's Cameron in all of his gingerbread glory

Heidi and Daniel were in the caboose.

Here's the gang, minus me, getting ready for the awesome train ride.



And here's the "conductor" and the cute little steam engine that pulled us.

After the ride, we headed over to Hartley's General Store and Daniel got to pick out a new Thomas the Train to go with his wooden tracks at home. He chose a little red caboose that plays the tune of the Thomas the Train theme song. Sorry no picture. I was a little bummed to find that their penny squisher machine was out of order. We I am a big fan of squished pennies.

Then we took the kids inside a couple train cars that had been preserved as a museum. It as pretty cool to see them from the inside and how the living and sleeping quarters were arranged.

This is the ramp leading up to the museum there.



Here are Daniel. Cameron, and Heidi, in front of a mannequin modeling how the train looked when it was in use.

After we finished up in the museum, we headed over to the playground. Daryl played with the kids while I went back to the car for our lunch we packed. (Yes, sandwiches again) But this time we also has apples and little cups of caramel dip, and juice bottles to go with it. Sorry no pics of the exciting lunch. After lunch we headed over to the Snackstop train car, and bought popsicles for the kids. Daryl got himself some ice cream from the general store, and I changed my vote from ice cream and got myself some mac-n-cheese. Then we headed home.

We had a great time together. And it was so affordable. Admission is free. We bought 12 tickets total, for the boys and us adults to use. (Heidi is part of the 3 and under crowd that gets to ride for free.)  The tickets got us on the train and into the museum. We also bought Daniel's new caboose, and treats for all. Total cost was about $27. Pretty good, I'd say. We'll have to make it out there again, and bring our change, when the penny machine is fixed.

Happy Birthday

So, today is my birthday. I'm 27 now. Wow really? Daryl left for work as usual, but, when I woke up, and came into the kitchen, I found a sweet little card he made and a some sewing tools I really wanted - a rotary cutter, with a mat and ruler to go with it. I was so excited that I HAD to cut some fabric and start some sort of project. I've decided to get working on a little black jacket for Heidi to wear over her forrest green Christmas dress, which is sleeve-less. I already had a pattern from when I made Heidi's 1st birthday dress. I was able to scrounge up enough black fabric for the lining but it wasn't nice enough for the jacket it's self and there wasn't enough anyways.

For dinner, I baked a lovely-looking frozen pizza for Daryl and myself, and some little roll dough pizzas for the kids, without cheese. Oh and we also ate a tasty salad too. Later, this evening, while Daryl was at Young Men's, my mother-in-law (and father-in-law) went with me to pick out some nicer fabric for the outside of the jacket. It should be pretty cute. I'll try and remember to post pics of that whe it's finished.

Throughout the day, I've received several calls from family and friends singing and wishing me a happy birthday.Thanks family! You're the best!

I have also made lunch plans to Sweet Tomato on Friday with my mom, (her birthday is NEXT Wednesday) as a joint birthday for both of us. We'll be taking the kids too. (Daniel's birthday is the day after mom's.)
Later, that evening, Daryl and I are planning on going out to dinner, and hopefully pick up the kids and choose a Christmas tree to decorate before bed. That will be lots of fun.

Now Announcing....

We are expectiong baby number 3!! I am due June 14th, 2011.

This ultrasound picture was taken at 6 weeks along. I am now 11 weeks today.

Heidi's Birthday Party

We has a birthday party/dinner for Heidi on Saturday, November 13th. I decided on a bubble theme, since she's not yet into anything super girly yet. She DOES love bubbles and balloons. We bought a big container of bubbles on clearance and fired up the bubble machine in the back yard. Each kid that came got a bubble wand to blow and take home. Daryl was in charge of cooking some meat for the main course. He fired up his meat smoker and went to work cooking some delicious ribs for his family and mine. I made a cheese ball with crackers and everyone else that was able, brought something to share. After dinner, we had cup cakes and ice cream. We even had soy ice cream so Heidi could have some too. She loves it. 

Here's Heidi with her "pupcake". She had no idea what to do with her candles.
It's a good thing Daddy and Daniel were there to help her out.



She decide that the Hands-free method works best.



Hey, it sure cuts on the messy hands.

At our request, my father-in-law made his famous homemade root beer. 

Everybody enjoyed it, especially Heidi.



She was a little annoyed with us when we took her cup away to unwrap her girts.



Grams (my dad's mother, came by earlier and dropped off this cute little bear for her. We're sorry that she wasn't able to stay. The bear has I love you on his tummy. When you squeeze his hand he says, "I love you! I love you! I love you!" Heidi couldn't get enough of it. It is so cute.

She also got some cute clothes for my mom, and from his mom and sisters, and several board books from my sister. Grandma and Grandpa Burgess brought he a cute card and a little giraffe toy. that she loves.
The dinner was great, the party was lots of fun and I know Heidi had a great time seeing her family all together. Thanks to both sides of the family for sharing this party with us.

Happy birthday Heidi! You are already such a big girl!



Happy Birthday Heidi!!

Last Thursday, November 11th (Veteran's Day) was Heidi's second birthday. Lucky for us, Daryl had the day off of work so he got to celebrate it with us for the day. We went to the Arizona Museum for Youth. We have a membership there. I have taken the kids tons of time, but this was Daryl's first time going with us so it was really special. There is a new exhibit about NASA and space. It was lots of fun.



The kids had fun bushing buttons and flipping switches as if the were in charge at NASA mission control.





They even had a little headset to wear and pretend with. Daniel loves it.



Here's a little room that looks like an alien space ship. Daniel picked out an alien and made a puppet show.



Heidi was making all kids of silly faces like this one...

and this one. Can you tell she's having a good time?

Daniel was really interested in this cool little box he found.
It rolls up and unrolls to reveal pictures and facts about astronauts and space.

Heidi and I looked at books about planets and stars.


After lots of fun at the space exhibit, we decided we were ready to go to Artville. Artville is a section of the museum designed just for kids 4 and under. There are several rooms with different themes where kids can play, build and create. 

First we decorated chameleon pictures with tissue paper.



 

Here they are making a track for a ball to roll down.



Heidi and I played nearby in the play kitchen.

Here she is setting the table with plates and cups on a magnetic board.



Then. in the next room, we stopped to play with the doll house.
She loves taking out some of the furniture and sitting the people at the table to eat.

It was such a fun day for everyone. Later, that evening I made homemade pizza for dinner and we red boxed Toy Story 3 to watch together. We all liked the movie and had a fun family day. We'll definitely have to do that again sometime. Stay tuned for the post on Heidi's birthday party last Saturday.

Happy Halloween

Here is a picture we took as we started out trick or treating this year. Daryl ran a lock through his rifle and went as a hunter. Daniel wore his Spiderman and Heidi was a lady bug.I finally remembered to put her antennae on. I thought they looked so cute.

Family Halloween

A few years ago, my sister-in-law, Cheryl started a Lamoreaux Family Halloween Party. This year, after a few scheduling conflicts, most of us were able to get together this past Saturday, the 23rd. We brought pumpkins to carve and Cheryl and Karolann prepared a lovely dinner of spaghetti squash (cooked and shredded spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce over-top) and witchy finger bread sticks. Mindi, Bret's wife, made meatball and white rice to share also. It was delicious. Thanks girls! They, Cheryl and Karolann, also planned a couple games and we finished the night off watching Hocus Pocus on the front lawn with my father-in-laws projector and a huge tarp draped over the side of Karolann's house next door. We had a great time. Daniel was so excited to finally wear his Spiderman costume. Heidi, on the other hand, wanted very little to do with the ladybug outfit I made for her. Wish us luck when we actually go trick-or-treating. I was able to get a few pictures of the festivities. Enjoy!



Here's how Heidi looks from the back and the front.
 I bought the leotard, and the black tights. I made the tutu and the wings.
(And i totally forgot her pipe-cleaner antenna at home.)
I also painted the two bean-bag toss games you see in the background.
They were still a little wet when we arrived, but it was worth it.



Unfortunately, this is the best picture so far of Daniel as Spiderman.

Even though I didn't MAKE this costume,

 I'm still mighty proud that I got for such a good deal.

It was free on craigslist because it needed some mending and a new zipper. Easily done.



Here he is bobbing for duckies.



This is Daryl on the left, trying on his brother, Trent's scary mask.
He's standing next to Cheryl's husband Robert.
Both of our kids were seriously afraid of this mask. They wouldn't go near Trent OR Daryl until they took it off again.



Rocky Point

This year we were able to get passports, and went on a Lamoreaux family trip to Mexico for October Break. We haven't been since September of '08 when I was 7 months pregnant with Heidi. It was a welcome break from the everyday life at home. We did all of the usual things. We ate authentic Mexican tacos at a new taco stand we found. We drove to one of the roads with lots of shops and looked around. We bought Daniel a little guitar, (the size of a ukulele) and Heidi a pair of little maracas. We HAD to stop for ice cream at Thrifty's. That's a given at least once. And of course we spent lots of time at the beach. On the beach we play and relax, and buy food and souvenirs from the beach vendors. This year was Heidi's first year to go and see the beach there.

Here is a picture of Heidi sitting with me on our blanket. She trying to put a floaty on her feet. She loved wearing a pair of sun glasses I bought on the beach for Daniel. We tried to buy her a pair at the markets, but she would only wear his. Go figure.

We all had a great time and can't wait until we get to go again!

Thank You Heidi

So I'm sitting at my sewing machine trying to sew a new zipper onto Daniel's Halloween costume. I had to redo a part, and it's just not coming easily. All of this is going on when I hear Heidi playing farm animals on the floor behind me. Holding a cow in one hand, and a dog in the other hand she looks at them and says, "Need to pray, Need to pray. Hebby Fauder lubs you." And sets her animals down and starts to pray with them. I guess something is sinking in. Thanks, sweet girl, I needed that.

Manners

Daniel sneezed this morning from the bathroom.
Me- Bless you. Do you need a tissue?
Daniel- No thanks. I'll just use my arms.

Where HAVE we been?!? (sorry long-winded)

The truth is, I have no idea where these past couple of moths have gone to. It's all been quite the whirl-wind. I'll try and update you as best I can. Maybe it's best to tackle this one person at a time.

Daryl - Daryl has started school this semester at MCC with a plan to eventually transfer to ASU's accounting program. He has a class Tues. evenings and another Thurs. evenings. He's doing great so far. As of last April, he has been working at a new job, running payroll and accounts payable and accounts receivable for a company that staffs doctors in hospitals. It keeps him busy, but I can tell he enjoys it. It makes a world of difference.

Me- What to say about my busy self? I It's hard to say specifically what I'VE been up to without crossing over into the goings on with the kids. And let me tell you THEY have been busy. I'll try and come back to me after I fill you in on their recent antics.

Daniel - Many of you know a little bit about Daniel's recent activities. I know I posted on Facebook about a month ago about the time when he SHOULD have been sleeping and got in to my water storage in his closet. He decided to open the gallon jugs and pour them all over his bed. Originally, I found only one empty jug, but upon further investigation, discovered seven more empty jugs hiding in the closet. His mattress and bedding were completely soaked, along with a few large patches of floor underneath the bed. (Those are still due for a good shampoo.) Needless to say I was upset.
But only SOME of you have heard the rest of the story. Two days after the whole ordeal. (We were still waiting for the mattress to completely dry.) He was in his room, again NOT sleeping, and pulled the stitching off all the way around the top of his mattress. The entire top of the mattress could be lifted off of the rest of it! I didn't have any idea this event occurred until later that day. I was getting them undressed and ready for baths and bed, when he informed me that he "broke" his mattress. He sure did.
After a week of Daniel sleeping on the floor, and finding no one I could pay to fix it, I finally caved and decided to sew it back together myself. (Keep in mind that he sleeps on a full sized mattress, not a twin.) So for the next three days, I hauled it back and forth between the living room and his bed room so I could sew it up. It took two days just to whip-stitch the top back on. The third day was spent sewing the trim piece over the top of that so it looked normal again. (And I can personally assure you that that thing will not be coming off anytime soon.) HE spent the three days doing all the chore that "I don't have time to do be cause I have to sew this mattress". He also got three good naps while I sat in his room sewing and making sure he went to sleep.. Wow, so that's where my time went.  Since then, we've changed to taking a nap some days, and reading books and laying down with a movie other days. We're still here and there with the potty training also. He is doing really good with our new sticker program. I look forward to the day when incentives are no longer necessary.

Heidi - Heidi is now learning how to sleep in a big girl bed. She actually has her twin bed AND a toddler bed in her room right now. She's been getting out of the twin bed and falling asleep up against her bedroom door at night and during nap. I found the toddler bed really cheap at a yard sale, and bought it, hoping she'd love that one more, and want to stay in it. She does like it. But not enough to stay yet. Today I've started sitting by her bed until she falls asleep. Maybe if I scoot further and further away each time she'll just get used to falling asleep right away like she used to. If nothing else, she'll at least catch up on some much-needed rest and be a happier girl again. **Crossing my fingers**
Heidi has taken a slight interest in going potty as well. She tells me sometimes that she needs to go potty and has actually gone in the potty a couple of times over the last two or three weeks. Maybe she'll be ready soon. I'm hoping things will run smoother with a little girl, but who knows.

Me Again- Well, as you can see I HAVE been busy. I also have my usual Activity Day meetings with the
8-11 year-old girls from our ward. I really love this calling. We meet twice a month, and usually at our house, which is good motivations to at least keep the bathrooms and family room clean.
I've been trying to see the good in the hectic, instead of just waiting for things to settle down. Because I know as soon as things start to calm down, the next challenge pops up to keep me on my toes.
There is Joy in the everyday doings, (and even in the NOT so everyday ones).

Arizona Republic! --Revisited--

Many of you know we have a membership to the AZ Museum for Youth, here in Mesa. We were there recently, when a reporter for the AZ Republic showed up and asked to take pictures of my kids, and my neice. He got several shots of Heidi and took down her name and age. He took several pictures of other children as well, to be included in an article featuring the newly rennovated museum. He told me that the article and photos will be published in the Arizona Republic on the 5th (tomorrow), and also at azcentral.com. He said her picture will be included in a slideshow on their website. I'm definitely going to buy a  newspaper tomorrow, and clip the article for her. As soon as I find it online, I'll post a link.

Monday, June 7th-
So I checked the paper on the approtriate day, and also the website. She wasn't there. They decided not to use heidi's picture in their article. Bummer. That would have been so cool.

Wednesday, June 9th-
I got a call from Daryl's Grandpa informing me that "A member of (my) family is a celebrity." I had to assume he meant Heidi. Apparently, the decided to run her picture in today's paper. I ran right out and bought one, and therte she was! It wasn't attatched to any article, just a caption about her and how she's learning while she plays. It IS pretty cute though. I'm still not sure if there's a link online or not.

Daniel the Builder

A couple of days ago I made the kids some sandwiches for lunch, and stepped out of the room to check on something. I came back in to find Daniel "building" something. When I asked him what it was he said...

"See dis is cow house and you put dis on, and you put dis on top. And cows go in here!

Dis is deir house and I made dis gate right here and der cows go in here on boddom. Dis is deir new house. Deir new house broken so I make dem new one and put dis on top safely."

(And I thought sandwiches were just for eating. Who knew they made great building materials as well.)